Tiny Tea Dispatch #019
So long, sunshine, it’s been nice knowing you.
All the peppers have been harvested as the vacation (and summer time) draws to a close. While I’m writing this, rain is pouring down like we’re in the middle of a flood. Weird to stumble right out of a heat wave and into this, but it fits the mood.
We got some great big Double Helix Nebula peppers that are now fermenting in jars, getting them ready to make new hot sauces. The rest of the harvest has been dried and stored. Well, all except for the Chocolate Beauty bell peppers, those made it into a stir fry. For some reason they weren’t as sweet as they should’ve been so I’ll probably plant something else next year.
Most of the jalapeño came out very small, as you can see in the photo above (added dinosaur for scale).
Speaking of hot sauce: the first vacation project was making a green and a red sauce using jalapeños I started to ferment back in April or so. We’re up to experimental batch #14 and I think it’s the best one so far.
~~ Ink well ~~
Not much to report here. I managed to fix the 2 pens mentioned in the last newsletter and I tinkered a bit with some Pelikan pens but that’s about it.
I am, however, putting some of my fountain pens to good use (more on that further below).
~~ Drawing ~~
During my vacation, I managed to free enough time to work on a 14-page comic I started writing months ago. For the inking, I finally got to use some of the fountain pens I’ve been gathering. For anyone who cares: the Himalaya did most of the work, it has a great flexible nib (after some fine-tuning). Now I need to make corrections and add shading.
I’m still going back and forth on putting it online or not. Maybe just in limited places (like this newsletter). It’s been a difficult one to put to paper, in part because of the subject matter. I’s also very possible some people will take issue with one thing or another. In any case, if I do put the finished version somewhere, it’ll be accompanied with references and more reading material.
We’ll see how it goes.
~~ Writing ~~
A new load of Transmissions have been sent out into the void, this August.
Start reading them right here:
~~ Reading ~~
It’s been a good month for reading books. I made my way through the first 2 volumes of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower + a book relating to the comic I’m writing (I’ll tell you about it in the next letter). I’m guessing it totals up to about 900+ pages.
Not sure if I’ll continue with The Dark Tower. There’s 5 or 6 more volumes to go and I’m already losing interest. I’ve heard the first volume is something readers have to plough through and it comes into its own with volume 2 and 3, but I enjoyed the first volume a lot more that the second. Roland’s past or development really isn’t that interesting to me.
Maybe I’ll try the 3rd volume if they have it at the library or second hand for cheap, see if it actually picks up.
~~ Final notes ~~
Another short letter, this month. Aside from a little ‘staycation’ at Booo’s parents, there isn’t that much to report. We spent a few days going on walks with and without the dog, biked along the ‘Antitankgracht’, which is a canal forming a quarter circle around Antwerp, meant to stop German tanks in WWII, which is now a nature reserve. (I don’t know what to call it in English) The bunkers in the woods are certainly interesting to see.
The most standout part of our little holiday, was that I managed to put time into making comics without stressing out. My default mode when I have time off, is to cram the projects I don’t have time for, into my vacation. Giving myself more work/stress when I should be clearing my head. It was one contributing factor in my creative burn-out.
For some reason, it went much smoother this time. I made no real plans, just spent a couple of hours each day drawing and spent the rest reading or doing something with Booo. It solidifies the idea that I really need more ‘buffer’ time in my life.
Speaking of planning and organizing, I rewatched a short documentary about Stanley Kubrick called “Kubrick’s boxes”. It’s a bit old by now but a nice look at how the director worked on his projects. It feeds into my obsession with organization systems and ‘commonplace books’ (a personal central depository for information). Maybe I’ll write a bit about my own systems at some point.
In any case, wherever you are, I hope you find some time away from the stressful things in life.
See you next week!
~~ Links ~~
- Transmissions: https://transmissions.rembo.me
- Stanley Kubrick’s boxes: https://vimeo.com/322890808
- Commonplace books: https://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2013/08/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
- Antitankgracht: https://www.wikiwand.com/nl/Antitankgracht_(Antwerpen)